Tag Archives: Success

Recently, at one of my mastermind groups, someone asked our guest speaker, Tony Robbins, how he managed a work, life balance. You want to know how he answered?

He laughed.

Ask any super successful, driven professional how they balance their work life and their personal life and you’ll get the same laugh. Or, maybe you’ll get an eye roll or some other dismissive answer because the reality is:

If you’re obsessed with being successful, with creating something bigger, with making a real difference in this world, there’s only one answer- There is no “normal” balance of work and life.

You work. All the time. And you find ways to integrate your life into your business lifestyle if it’s important to you.

One of the main keys to being successful is having clarity. If you’re wondering whether you’re one of these success-driven people, start by asking yourself these questions:

Where did you start?

What do you want to achieve?

Are you obsessed with what you want?

Are you willing, and motivated, to do whatever it takes to get there?

If you’re really obsessed with what you want, it truly becomes about how to make life work when you prioritize business. Yes, it’s much easier for someone like Tony Robbins to bring his kids along with him when he works because he has access to private planes, the ability to homeschool his kids, and pay for a support network to help when he can’t. Now you, you have the ability to make life work for you, too. You just have to get clear about your priorities and take it from there.

If you work all the time, you HAVE to integrate the rest of your life.

Since you’re still reading, I think it’s safe to say you, like me, spend all of your time thinking about your work and how to make it better. It’s true that today I can afford to hire people to help me with my four dogs, but it wasn’t always that way. What I knew how to do was find a support network that had the same goals as me.

My first tip for how to integrate life with work is to talk to the people in your life honestly about your schedule. If there’s a partner or spouse, be clear about your goals and make sure they understand how those goals might impact their life. In my case, my fiancé shares my vision and goals, and she’s on board with my schedule. We find ways to make it work, but it started with an honest conversation about my lifestyle and how she would fit into that. Including her in those discussions allowed her to feel good about the choices we’re making together.

Maybe there isn’t a significant other, but most of us have people in our lives that can help when we’re focused on building an empire and may not have time to take care of everything else. Even if there aren’t people like that in your life, think about what kind of support you need.

I admit that there have been times I paid an assistant more than what I was making because it was important to make sure I had the uninterrupted time I needed to accomplish my task list. Equally important ,was having what I needed when I got home so I wasn’t deprived just because of my schedule.

In summary, first clarify your priorities so you can determine where you need to focus your time and where you need others to help fill in the gaps. Second, talk to those people in your life to make sure everyone’s on the page so you can make the best of the available time you have. Finally, if you’re able, delegate responsibilities and find someone to help do the things that make life comfortable, since you may not have the time to do yourself.

Wouldn’t work be amazing if everyone did their job? Seriously, how many times have you asked your employees to do something only to turn around and realize they didn’t do it, or did it half-assed? That makes me extremely unhappy, and I’m pretty sure you feel the same.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There are lots of great employees—the kind who work hard, take pride in their performance, and act like a committed member of your team. And, we appreciate them. But, even those special types struggle if they’re not in the right environment. So whether we’re talking about service advisors, service managers or service technicians, how do you get people to willingly do their best all the time?

The answer is Gamification, and it’s exactly what it sounds like—using game playing to increase employee productivity and drive results. We’ve been doing this in the car industry for years—using games to motivate our teams. In the 400+ dealerships I’ve turned around, Gamification is still the best way I’ve found to drive momentum and results and get better work out of your workers. We are a competitive species. And the proof is the gaming industry. As of today, it’s worth $200 billion.

The point is if you’re not playing games with your employees, then they’ll just be playing games on their phones, instead of working. And, we all know how frustrating that is. So let’s get into the best ways to use Gamification. First, keep in mind the key to Gamification is anything can be a game. Don’t over-complicate this, or get caught up in too many rules. Get a deck of cards, or some dice—certainly keep things simple to get started. At Chris Collins Inc. we play games every day. Some of our favorite in-office games are dollar poker, baseball, bozo buckets, or anything that involves shooting things.

You can gamify your MVP’s— your most valuable products—you can gamify systems, sales, information gathering, call times—you can gamify almost anything, any system, any customer-facing interaction.

If you aren’t already a Gamification pro, you can get the specifics on how to set up games from this week’s Service Drive Revolutionshow. And, you can always get my book, Gamification, if you struggle with coming up with ideas. There are hundreds in there and they have instructions. Our guest host on the show this week, Mario Pernillo, talks about choosing games that have the right vibe for your tribe, and how you should pick a game that you think might work well for your group, and the issues they’re struggling with.

As the leader, boss, or manager it’s your job to get Gamification started, and create that energy. Make it exciting and show the guys you have prizes to give them. If you take the time to implement fun games, with rewards, the results will speak for themselves. Your employees will be more upbeat and more productive. We know – from experience.

Teamwork is now an integral part of any business workplace. Whether it’s a small business or a big one, there needs to be teamwork in order to get the job done. The benefits are huge as it can result in better workplace cohesion, higher productivity, and innovation and enhanced problem-solving.

With teamwork everyone has to work together in order to achieve whatever goal has been set. It’s really a collaborative effort with shared responsibility. Simply put the success of the one is based on the success of the many.

Promoting teamwork in the business workplace is essential for success. Many businesses have found that it can really drive the business forward and make it flexible, competitive and grow faster. That’s hardly surprising since teamwork enhances individual abilities and combines them with others to the best advantage.

If you want to promote or enhance the teamwork that’s already in place in your business there are a few things you need to do in order to make it work.

Understand what teamwork is and the benefits that you will get from it. It all starts from this. If you don’t know what teamwork is and what it can do for you then there’s no way you will be able to spread this system to the rest of your business workplace.

As they say lead by example. If your employees see that you don’t even know or understand the concept of teamwork then they may not accept it or work with it. You need to show them that you are committed to making this work so they will also feel that they need to be as committed to it as you are.

Share your vision to the rest of the workplace. Getting people to work together isn’t going to work if they don’t have a shared vision or goal to work for. If you don’t tell them what you want the business to achieve then they will be in the dark and confused as to what direction they need to go to or how they will play a part in all of this.

This also includes setting the goals that everyone will aspire to. If you do this everyone will be on the same playbook. This means everyone will have the same goal to go after. If the rest of your workplace doesn’t have a clue then they won’t have the motivation to work together since they don’t know for what purpose they need to work together for.

Know what can impede teamwork. This means communicating with the workforce and determining what may derail the teamwork train. Are there any issues that can prevent people under you from working with one another?

If there are any grudges or animosity between your people it may cause a lot of in-fighting and confrontation that will disrupt the efficient running of your business. It is best to know these things so that you can plan what you need to do in order to alleviate the issues.

Communication development. Getting people connected to one another is an important aspect to developing good teamwork. Without it many will be in the dark as to what is happening or what needs to be done.

With good communication, you will be able to exchange ideas that can solve problems that may come up. You can get inputs from other members that will not only create synergy and innovation but also help create a trust between each member.

Trust building. Of course, teamwork won’t be effective if the members involved in the ‘team’ don’t trust one another. A way for you to encourage trust is to listen to their inputs and allow them to make suggestions.

Doing this will show them that they are an integral part of the ‘team.’ Another good way would be for you to recognize valuable contributions when necessary. If milestones are met then you should recognize it and let your people know.

This will give then satisfaction for a job well done. At the same time they will see that their hard work will be recognized and so it will motivate them, even more, to do a better job on the next project and so on.

You can also do social activities that promote camaraderie and closeness. This could be a workplace social party that will let everyone relax and share information about one another. It will also let each one know about the others. This will create a bond and thus make your people feel closer and tighter.

Have team building exercises. This doesn’t have to be on a daily basis but it should be regular. These exercises show members the importance of teamwork. At the same time it also creates the opportunity for members who participate in these types of exercises to bond resulting in more closeness and cohesiveness.

Don’t micromanage. Doing so may sound like a good idea because you will always be in control of things but it can backfire and derail the teamwork. Micromanaging shows members that you don’t trust them and remember, trust is an important aspect of teamwork.

Delegate as much authority and work as you can. Remember, you have a team at your disposal. Letting each one work on a part of the whole will make the work go faster and more efficiently. At the same time, you show that you trust them because you are giving them more responsibility. It’s the whole shared responsibility idea.

You may also want to relax as well. Rules are there but they should be flexible. Often, a more relaxed and flexible atmosphere is better in fostering teamwork than a rigid one that has to follow everything by the book.

While you’re busy with promoting or developing teamwork in your workplace do be aware of the issues of that very system. While it does have its advantages, teamwork also has its disadvantages.

One of them is the free-rider effect. This is where some members simply lay back and wait for the rest of the members to finish the whole thing then get part of the credit for it. It can break down morale if others see that they get something for doing nothing. What will happen is that no one will do anything anymore after that thereby breaking down the whole teamwork concept.

Then there’s the conflict. Even if you think things are already ironed out – it isn’t. When egos come into play so will animosity. It can lead to a confrontation which can then disrupt the whole process. While a little conflict is to expected big ones and ones that go beyond trying to find solutions isn’t.

Then there’s the fact that not everyone is comfortable when working in teams. Some people are just not social and working as a team in a teamwork environment requires interaction. If that were the case then these people won’t be able to function well. This can be detrimental to the whole team effort.

Done right teamwork can be a big boon to any business entity. It can give results that can really make the difference between a loss and a win. The ways to promote teamwork can vary and you don’t have to do it all in one go.

Teamwork can’t be built in a day. It takes some time and patience until the results can be seen.

Teamwork by definition means an action by a group of people that’s both efficient and effective in accomplishing goals and tasks. This is usually used in sports but it has also been used in the area where business is concerned.

It makes sense to use teamwork in business. After all, you do have the presence of a group of people that’s all tasked with achieving one goal – the survival and profitability of the business they are working in. If you have your own business then you need to consider the promotion of teamwork for your people so that you and your business can move forward and achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself.

Perhaps the epitome of teamwork is the different teams that comprise any business entity out there. Be it the sales team or the marketing team or the accounting team such groupings exist whether it be permanent or temporary – depending on the job they need to do.

Project teams are often teams that are put together for a specific project. This could be a project concerning the promotion of such and such product or the introduction of it. The people involved are often from different units within the business brought together for this one specific goal. Once the project is done they go back to their own respective teams or departments.

Interdependent teams often work together in order to achieve a certain goal. Because they are interdependent no one team can finish their own work without the other team finishing theirs. This is often the case wherein one team needs to do the design first before the fabrication team can make the actual product and so on.

Independent teams have their own specific goals in mind and work independently on their own to achieve them. While they may work with other teams they are not required to and can still finish their assigned tasks even if the other teams don’t.

While over 90% of people who often work in a teamwork or team environment agree that such a system is important in any workplace their preference say otherwise. Sadly only a quarter or approximately 25% of them say they like to work with a team in any way, shape or form.

This low percentage may be attributable to their experience when working in such an environment. A little over 60% saw themselves stuck in dysfunctional teams. About 40% have seen verbal confrontations between team members and some (about 15%) even saw physical confrontations.

While this may seem like the notion of teams and teamwork in the workplace is a bad idea, most will say that their benefits far outweigh the negatives. And the benefits to the people who work in the business and the business itself are many.

Unites people – Despite the potential for confrontations and animosity working together as a team has a way of uniting people. That’s because as a team member they are often forced to work together depending on the situation. In those kinds of situations they often put aside their dislike for one another and strive together to finish the task assigned to them.

Competitiveness instead of negativity – Seeing others work can often lead people to become competitive and thus work harder in order to catch up and even surpass them. Because teamwork means all members are collectively responsible for the outcome these often result in each member striving to work together better in order to get the job assigned to them done.

Delegation – Because there is a team and there is teamwork each member knows just how strong each member is. This means that by delegating each job to a specific member that’s capable enough to do it then the workload will be done more efficiently which means more work can be finished in less time.

Shared workload – Because you’re working as a team your workload is now the team workload. Even if one or two members gets sidetracked – which can happen to anyone – the other members will be there to pick up the slack. This will also motivate the sidetracked members to come back and work to carry the load that the others had to take.

Complimentary resource utilization – Because team members come in with their own respective expertise and talents you can make full use of those talents in order to get the job done. You no longer have to look far in order to find someone who knows this or that – you can find them within the framework of the team that is already there.

Innovation and ideas – They do say that two heads are better than one. Because each member comes from differing environments and have differing experiences they bring a different outlook that may just be the solution to a problem that pops up. This means that innovative ideas can come out of such teamwork that can help better the work efficiency and produce a product that is the better for it.

But what really makes teamwork good is the mutual support it gives to each and every member of the workplace. There will always be someone there to catch them when they’re falling or someone who will give them that little push forward when they’re faltering on a job.

It’s good for the business too because of the efficiency that is born out of teamwork. That and the sense of accomplishment and camaraderie that comes out of it which makes the people who work there that much closer and tight knit.

That said, there are certainly cons when it comes to teamwork. There’s no such thing as perfection in this world and teamwork is certainly one of them. While it does boast of benefits it does have some negatives.

Domination – it’s not really teamwork if only one person is doing the commanding. While there may be a team leader everyone has a say on what should be done as part of the brainstorming. However, if only the team leader is saying anything and everyone else is simply following without much discussion then there’s no exchange of ideas or synergy that can be beneficial to the whole process.

Free-ride syndrome – You know what this is. It’s when a small number of people do all the work and the rest just take part when it comes to getting credit. It happens a lot when the teamwork is not done right. This may be hard to detect and can go on for some time until push comes to shove and nothing gets done.

Common majority – the advantage of teamwork is that everyone comes in with their own set of ideas and principles. This is supposed to add synergy to the workplace. However, team environments can also cause everyone to start thinking the same regardless of their backgrounds. This will actually cause a loss of synergy such that no innovation can be found anymore.

Conflict – Egos are hard to curtail and people with egos tend to clash with one another. Conflict, when properly guided can lead to answers as long as the conflict is about the solution. When the conflict is about everything else but finding a solution then it’s simply a matter of egos gone amuck which leads to a broken workplace.

Bigger isn’t always better – Just because a team is bigger doesn’t necessarily mean the teamwork will be any better. On the contrary, it is often the big groups that have a problem with teamwork. It increases the chances of free rides and conflicts. It also makes it harder to coordinate the work in order to get things done.

There are a number of ways you can promote teamwork in your workplace. They can be an effective way for you to get the benefits pointed out. As long as you look out for the negatives you can have an effective workplace that’s more tightly knit and efficient.

What’s your take on teams and teamwork? Are you willing to work with a team in order to make things run more smoothly? Comment below.